France Adventure – Saturday, May 31, 2014 – Hand of Man or Hand of God

Hi, everybody.  Welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today we travel back home, back to the USA.  We’re ready to go home, ready to be back in our house, ready to see our kitty.  Up early and off to the airport, we departed from Bordeaux-Merignac to Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

With time between flights, we relaxed in the Air France lounge, a partner with the Delta SkyClub.  I must say, the Air France lounge is much nicer than the SkyClubs in the U.S.  

A nice selection of hot food for breakfast and lunch is a good start.  For example, here at Air France, they offer duck Périgourdine.  At the SkyClub in the U.S., they offer olives and carrot sticks.  Here at Air France, a selection of very fine wine is on ice for your convenience.  At the SkyClub in the U.S., a glass of Chalone Chardonnay is $10 per glass on top of the membership fee.

It’s all fine.  We were glad to see the Delta logo and our plane being prepared to take us to Detroit.

We happened to get a look at the Air France Airbus A380 outside the window of the lounge, the largest passenger plane in the world, two decks the length of the plane, a maximum passenger capacity of 850.  What a mammoth airplane.  Only seven airports in the U.S. can land the A380.  It was quite a sight to see.

You know, the world is just not as big a place as we used to think.  I thought France was way over there.  In fact, it’s just right over there.  You get on the plane, it takes off, you have dinner, you watch a movie, maybe two movies, you sleep, then you’re there.  It's only a couple of hours more than a coast-to-coast flight in the U.S.

We landed in Detroit, got home by 4:00 p.m., picked up Sonoma, and pretty soon decided we were ready for dinner.  Five o’clock in Plymouth is 11:00 p.m. in France, so we were past dinnertime.  We went into town at the very un-French hour of 5:30 p.m.  Remember all our posts about how we were always the first to arrive for dinner at 7:00 or 7:30?  Not so much, here at home.  Here’s the patio at the Box Bar & Grill in Plymouth at 5:30 p.m.  In France, they wouldn’t even be open at this hour.

Inside, we were ready for good old American food … nachos!

Here’s a vivid reminder of American restaurants.  I ordered Diet Pepsi with dinner.  It came in a pitcher, not to pour into a glass, but with a straw in it.

Here’s our Home Sweet Home in Plymouth, Michigan.

As we reflect on our France experience from the perspective of typical Americans, I would say the French have a more profound sense of place than most of us, in ways both good and maybe not so good.

French culture, cuisine, and wine are very, very traditional, steeped in hundreds upon hundreds of years, and not easily adapted to new trends.  Decent coffee in the boulangerie is a fortune waiting to be made, I tell you!  They practice a general rule of what grows together goes together.  If you know the regional dishes, it’s a fair bet that the wines of the region will be delicious with them.  

For example, this cheese is available in Burgundy, but not Bordeaux.

Smaller restaurants and wine shops in the small towns of France provide regional products almost exclusively.  When we see all the empty bottles of wonderful wine at Ma Cuisine in Beaune, they’re all Burgundies.  Very few wines of other regions are available and there was no American wine whatsoever.

American visitors like us love this regional specificity.  When we’re there, we know where we are.  Every region has a definite uniqueness and style.  Foods and wines that are available in one place are completely different from another place.  In contrast, an American wine shop has an enormous diversity of wines from different regions of the world.  As with all other products in the U.S., Americans expect a diverse selection and lots of choices.  For example, take a look at the selection of mustard the next time you go grocery shopping.  Really, how many choices of mustard do we need?

Americans are fascinated by celebrity.  Maybe that’s true everywhere, at least to some extent.  But take a look at this American wine label.  What’s the most prominent information on the label?  It’s the name of the producer.  

Now look at this French wine label.  What’s the most prominent information?  It’s the name of the place.  The name of the producer, Domaine Fourrier is in small type down at the bottom and the name of the grape is not on the label at all.  There are exceptions in both countries, but in general, this is the pattern one sees.  The emphasis there is the place, not the man, the expression of the earth, not the stylistic bent of the producer. 

When I taste a wine from Gevrey-Chambertin, I think it tastes like Gevrey, or at least Burgundy.

But it’s not unusual to taste an American wine and think, "That tastes like a wine produced by so and so producer."  That doesn't mean it's not a fine wine to be enjoyed.  We have lots of American wines in our collection that we enjoy.  

In a broad sense with many exceptions, though, I would say it’s the Hand of God that gets top billing in France, not the Hand of Man.  

It's the place, not the producer.  It’s sort of like the difference between listening to a performance of Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Wild Cherry performing Play that Funky Music White Boy.

What else can we learn?  First, and I’ve said this before, it really helps to go there.  When one stands among the vineyards, separated only by a narrow dirt lane or a stone wall, and think that those vineyards, only yards apart, produce very different tasting wine from the same grape, I can only marvel at nature.

Burgundy is not a big place.  There are some big companies, to be sure … Bouchard, Louis Latour, Jadot … but most producers are family names, owned and run by the family.  When you visit them, they may be kicking the mud off their boots to take the time to show you around.  

The typical domaine is a small building or even their home.  Most of them are not wealthy.

Bordeaux is big.  Really big.  The vastness is hard to comprehend until you see it.  It’s not simply that you can stand in the countryside, such as at our gite, and see vineyards to the horizon for 360 degrees.

 It’s that you can get in your car and drive for hours and still be in Bordeaux.  It’s that there are 9,000 producers, many with estate sizes over 100 acres.  The history of Bordeaux and its proximity to the Atlantic made it easier to ship its wines to the world and to build fabulous wealth.  So you see so many châteaux like these.

France is beautiful and so is America.  Mary tells me a story about her German relatives who visited her years ago and saw national parks and the Golden Gate Bridge and wondered why Americans are so interested in traveling to other parts of the world when there is so much to see and experience here at home.  You know, they’re right on one level.  But traveling abroad is an enlarging experience.  It helps us to know other people, other ways of living, other ways of perceiving the world around us.  I think it makes us better citizens.

Speaking of being better citizens, we Americans need to be polite when we’re traveling.  The French welcome tourists, it’s a big source of business income, but I don’t think we always make a good impression.  We encountered lots of Americans in France and too many of them are 1) loud, 2) demanding, 3) making no attempt to understand French customs and culture, 4) making no attempt to speak French, even easy basic expressions such as please and thank you, and 5) flashing around lots of money as if it’s their passport to anything they want.  We tried to speak quietly and, whenever possible, in French.  We took a few lessons before going.  I would say I speak a little of what I would call travel French.  If you make a sincere effort, they appreciate it and they will use their own limited English to meet you more than halfway.  Our experience with French people is that they are kind, reasonably friendly, and willing to help.

I asked Mary to comment in her own voice about her impressions of Burgundy and Bordeaux.  Here she is.

What I love about Burgundy, besides the wine, is the beautiful countryside.  I love our drives up and down narrow roads that make you think you must be lost, but around a bend, a village appears with a church in the middle.  

Suddenly you are driving over cobblestones past centuries-old buildings and just as quickly, that town is in your rearview mirror and you are in the middle of a meadow again.

The wines of Burgundy pair so beautifully with the local foods: boeuf bourguignon, Bresse chicken, Charolais beef, Coq au Vin, escargots, jambon persillé.  

And we love Burgundy cheeses: Abbaye de Cîteaux and Époisses.

This was our first time to visit Bordeaux.  We had heard it has many beautiful châteaux, and it does. We had heard it is huge, and it is.  

What surprised me is that despite its size, visiting a winery could feel intimate because of the friendliness and warmth of the people we met.  

What I love about Bordeaux is the beauty of the vineyards around villages and towns large and small.  

The vineyards are dotted with rhododendrons and rose bushes, which bring back memories of California.  I thought the vastness of the place would somehow diminish its beauty, but it really multiplied it.

When I compare my impressions of Burgundy and Bordeaux, I think they are both wonderful places with much in common: beautiful countryside, fantastic wines, and delicious food.  Burgundy is charming in a small-town friendly way.  Bordeaux is bigger and bolder with its beautiful châteaux and sturdy wines.  I would love to return and explore it more.

I love my wife.  Spending this much time together makes me appreciate her all the more and deepens our relationship.  We shared the experience, of course, but we also depended on each other and supported each other, which is really important when traveling in a foreign country.

People are people.  We seek out vacation rental homes, a gite, instead of hotels or bed and breakfasts.  We want to interact with families, the people who live there and own the property.  

We have visited in the home of Marie and Yves Zecchini in Magny-les-Villers for three years straight.  

We have a relationship with them.  We’ve met their children and grandchildren.  When we had dinner at La Ciboulette, Madame Isabelle asked us if we wanted the same table as last time.  It all makes the travel experience that much more authentic.

I do not believe for a minute that French culture or traveling in France is inherently superior to ours or traveling in the U.S.  It is clear, though, that we can learn from each other and that we are more alike than different.  They want the same things for their families and themselves that we want.  They have the same tribulations and the same sources of satisfaction and contentment that we have.  For me, it’s nice to see that up close.

Until next time, la belle France.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  We’re back home and hope to keep the blog going with posts every so often about wine, food, and cultural experiences right here where we are and where we travel in the future.  Thanks again so very much for reading us.  The comments and “likes” we got kept us motivated to write and post.  Keep checking back for more adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian

France Adventure – Friday, May 30, 2014 – Last Day in Bordeaux

Bonjour à tous!  Hello, everyone.  Welcome again to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today is our last day in Bordeaux, our last day in France before going home.  We wanted to make the most of it, but stay near Saint Émilion.  I picked up one last fresh croissant for Mary at the boulangerie in Montagne before we ventured out for the day.

We spent the morning touring Saint Émilion.  Despite how many tourists (like us) are there, it is a beautiful and historic place to visit.  It is an ancient, medieval town.  Here in the market square, one can easily see the exterior of the Monolithic Church.  The word means “one stone.”  The church was not built with blocks of stone, but instead was completely carved out of limestone rock more than 900 years ago.

Some 100-300 years later, the gigantic bell tower was added.

The monk, Émilion, arrived from Brittany around 750 A.D. to continue his ministry.  Natural erosion had created caves in the limestone where he lived as a hermit.  The cave is part of a fascinating tour, but photography is not permitted inside.  It includes a spring that Émilion used for baptizing.  There is also a stone meditation chair, also called a fertility chair.  According to local legend, if a woman sits on the chair and prays to become a mother, she will become pregnant soon.

The Trinity chapel was built in the early 13^th century and has both Romanesque and Gothic features.  Painting on the ceilings date to the 14^th century.  No religious service has been conducted in the chapel since the French Revolution.

Near the hermitage and under the Monolithic Church are the catacombs.  Once again, no photography is permitted.  The catacombs are an underground cemetery.  The tombs are carved from the limestone rock.  A cupola stands over the tombs with carvings of three men stretching their arms to leave the tomb, a symbol of resurrection.  Light from a carved spiral staircase showed the way to heaven.  Interesting to me, documents show that three categories of people could be buried in the tombs: important members of the church, wealthy people, and stillborn infants, considered too young to have sinned.

From these windows outside, the volume of the church cannot be imagined.  The chambers are, quite simply, enormous.  Mary and I always wonder, how in the world did they do it with the tools available to them at that time?

Back up the cobblestone alley we go.

Our afternoon appointment was at Château de la Dauphine in Fronsac, a village about 15 minutes away.  

We arrived around 12:30 in time for lunch at the only restaurant in town, La Bonne Fourchette, which translates to The Good Fork.

We had simple lunches of salade la chèvre chaud, warm goat cheese.

And omelet et frites.  The place is a small roadside diner, basically.  Lunch comes with a small pichet of wine.  I watched some men sitting outside at a picnic table and saw one of them tear his bread and drop it into the wine.  Mary didn’t understand that at all, but somehow it made sense to me that a working man in the French countryside would tear French bread into wine at lunch.  It reminded me of how my father liked to crumble cornbread into buttermilk, which I do myself from time to time.

Fronsac is a village on the Dordogne River.  Château de la Dauphine is within a few hundred yards of the river, which provides a moderating influence all year, preventing frost in the winter and spring and cooling the vineyards slightly during the growing season.

I wanted to visit Château de la Dauphine because I had tasted their wine before, the 2001 vintage, and it was delicious, even spectacular.  In fact, I still have two bottles of the 2001 at home.

It is a grand estate, park-like in its beauty.

The château is like many we have seen in Bordeaux, an 18^th century mansion for the family of the owners at the time.

The dauphine was the heir to the French throne or the wife of the dauphin.  The dauphine never lived at Château de la Dauphine, but Princess Maria-Josepha of Saxony, the Dauphine of France and mother of King Louis XVI, did visit shortly after the château was built around 1750.

The château is beautifully furnished and occupied by its current owner.

Here’s the rear of the château.  That’s Mary strolling across the courtyard.

The gate shows the view up the hill to the Merlot vineyards.

Despite the rural character of the place, the church bell tower is right outside the gates.

Château de la Dauphine was bought in 2000 by the current owners, the family that owns Carrefour, a large grocery superstore chain in France that is described by our guide as the “Walmart of France.”  The château was restored and the winemaking facilities upgraded from this …

… to this, a gleaming, circular, two-story, gravity flow operation.

A sorting table uses a laser-technology optical scanner to reject all but desired grapes.

A computer console controls everything.

Here’s the barrel aging room at Château de la Dauphine.

Marion, our wonderful guide, escorted us to the “boutique” for the tasting.  Marion has excellent English language skills, having worked and lived in the San Francisco area as an au pair.

The 2008 was delicious, polished and fleshy, approachable for immediate enjoyment, with prominent dark fruit notes but good acidity and tannic structure for balance.  As much as we both enjoyed it, I must say I love the 2001 even more, which was made in the older, more primitive facility.

The wall of the boutique is a chalkboard where visitors can leave a message. 

We went back to Saint Émilion for our final dinner of the trip to France.  We walked through the current church and took this photo.

Back down the steep, cobblestone alley we went.

We selected the most convenient place on the market square, Amelia Canta.

The town is practically deserted in the evening, plus, we’re always the first to arrive for dinner.

I had a first course of compotee legumes, stewed vegetables and mozzarella cheese.

My main course was salade nicoise.  Bring on the anchovies!

Mary enjoyed carre d’agneau, lamb chops with mashed potatoes.

The wine was Maison Blanche Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2006, mostly Merlot with a little Cabernet Franc.  Like other wines from Saint Émilion satellite appellations, it was fine but not remarkable.  It offered classic aromas and flavors of red fruit, currant, herbs, with medium acidity. 

We finished the dinner with coffee, which came out with irregular cup handles, one vertical and the other horizontal.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Thanks again very much for reading us.  We were both tired on our last evening in France and thinking of packing and an early start to get to the airport.  Back to the USA tomorrow.  Keep checking back at Cépage et Cuisine as we wind up our wine, food, and cultural vacation in France and head home to Plymouth.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian